Chapter 2: Murderer, Fugitive, Coward

‘Glessia, if this goes on, Materia Viridis’s life will be in danger.’

“I know that.”

Glessia Azure replied to the tiny fairy in a ballerina outfit perched on her shoulder.

Glessia had received intel that he appeared in an abandoned shopping district on the outskirts late at night.

She deployed all available forces.

A sizable police presence, with Materia and Argente there to pin down and defend against his attacks.

For something put together in a rush, it was a strong lineup.

‘We underestimated him.’

The most heinous criminal in history, who had slaughtered dozens of magical girls.

They had underestimated his power.

She arrogantly assumed they could overpower him with numbers.

She even prepared a way to seal off his usual escape route.

She believed there was no reason they could lose.

That arrogance put Materia—her young junior—at the brink of death.

“Miss Argente, please take Materia to the rear.

Send her to the Association hospital.”

Sanguine Obsidia’s spirit weapon, a black rapier.

Its name was unknown, but its effects were widely known among all magical girls of the Association.

It inflicted wounds that wouldn’t heal.

More precisely, wounds that couldn’t be healed by a magical girl’s natural recovery.

Materia’s neck was gushing blood, but Argente’s magic could buy time.

If they could get her to the Association hospital, the wound could be healed with higher-tier healing magic.

Obsidia must’ve calculated this.

She inflicted just enough bleeding that one magical girl could escort her in time.

‘Please… be safe.’

She’d taken a hit, but there wouldn’t be a second.

Tonight, in this pre-dawn hour, Sanguine Obsidia’s infamy would end.

At the hands of me, Glessia Azure.

“Glacial Wall!”

At Glessia’s shout, a massive blue wall of ice materialized, and blood-colored spears either bounced off or exploded against it.

Except for two.

They each pierced the heart of two officers hiding behind a patrol car, trembling in fear.

The rest were untouched.

Hostages, plain and simple.

Because ‘magical girls’—benevolent as they are—wouldn’t allow innocent police officers to die.

Look.

That pale face.

Now that suits the name “glacier,” doesn’t it?

A dull ache started to bloom in her chest.

She needed to end this fast.

[Obsidia…]

Something growled faintly, but she ignored it.

“You filthy criminal…!”

A cop, likely a comrade of the fallen ones, let out a groan—but she ignored him too.

Glessia, now ashen-faced, was deploying dozens of magic circles into the air.

Her spirit weapon—what looked like a staff adorned with a blue crystal orb—was flashing rapidly, as if it was about to detonate.

She was probably trying to create a barrier to protect everyone present.

To protect dozens of powerless police officers—ordinary people who couldn’t even use magic.

Why did they even bring them?

“These people… you may as well have killed them yourself.”

Everyone stood frozen in place, the only sound being the low hum of magic circles.

My voice rang loud and clear.

“Did you seriously believe that those toy bullets—those pitiful things only capable of killing low-tier monsters—would work on me?”

[Obsidia, you’re acting weird today! You’re not usually this aggressive. Please, calm down!]

“Spooky, I am calm. Rational. Logical.”

The strange one here was him.

Normally, he didn’t say a word when someone died, yet today he wouldn’t shut up.

And why was he even trying to defend the enemy?

Playing the voice of conscience, is he?

Ah, right. We usually don’t fight this long.

Makes sense.

I decided to ignore Spooky’s nonsense.

Weird? Maybe.

I have been cooped up for days without killing anyone.

Statistically speaking, that might qualify as strange.

But Glessia is the strange one.

If she had a space-sealing spell, she should’ve used it earlier.

Or… maybe not?

It looks like the area within several dozen meters has been isolated.

Must’ve taken serious prep or sacrifice to activate it—hence the delay.

And that fourth magical girl probably didn’t have much power left to use anything else.

“But it’s annoying.”

Every time I fought magical girls—whether I killed them or let them go—my final move was always the same.

I’d go into spirit form and escape to shake off pursuit.

This space barrier must be the kind that even spirits can’t pass through.

In other words, Glessia Azure intended to defeat me using three magical girls and police forces, then seal off my escape.

A plan that failed the moment it began.

“Strange. Why did you wait so long to use the barrier?”

I said it out loud, clearly for Glessia to hear.

The way her pale face flushed red—priceless.

From that reaction alone, it was obvious: she either hadn’t thought things through from the start, or she acted too hastily.

Either way, the outcome was already decided.

“Glessia Azure. These people will all die because of your stupidity.”

I raised both arms in a dramatic flourish, like a conductor building toward a furious crescendo.

Responding to the gesture, pitch-black mana and the semi-congealed blood from corpses fused into chains.

Dozens of chains, each tipped with a small blade.

Sharp enough to pierce an average human heart with ease.

Throb.

The pain in my chest intensified—faster and stronger now.

“Stop it! Please!”

“Finally coming to your senses?”

But I didn’t stop. The dozens of chains clinked and rattled as they poured forth.

“Glacial Wall! Avalanche!”

The magic circles Glessia had prepared all this time flashed blue.

Dozens of sturdy ice walls surged like a snow avalanche, shielding the heads and bodies of every officer.

Controlling magic at this scale couldn’t be easy, but Glessia Azure—despite her limited mental bandwidth—was still a surprisingly competent magical girl.

But sadly…

“What…?”

Dozens of blood-red chains.

All aimed at one person: Glessia Azure.

Each of her limbs, and even her staff, was wrapped with more than ten chains, pulling her into the air, arms and legs splayed out in a cross.

What a ridiculous sight.

“I told you. I’m not going to kill you.”

Because there’s no need to.

Not for you, or the others.

“Goodbye.”

But this one is the exception.

“And goodbye again. My condolences.”

I approached the girl in the gray hoodie and drove my rapier into her.

Once through the collarbone.

Once through the heart.

Then I flooded her bloodstream with mana to destroy her internal organs.

No one could save her now.

It was a corpse.

Right after that, the spatial and magical pressure vanished.

With the caster dead, the barrier collapsed—and I was free again.

At the same time, the pain in my chest grew worse.

[You said you wouldn’t kill… You didn’t need to kill her!]

Spooky, repeating the same thing again.

“She had to die.”

Unlike the others, she presented a risk I couldn’t afford to leave alive.

I’m still rational.

Still logical.

“There aren’t many magical girls with space-type powers. If I spared someone who could block my escape with spatial or tracking magic, it could ruin my entire fugitive lifestyle.”

Out of mercy, I made sure she died before she could even feel pain.

[…You’re not going to kill Glessia too, right?]

His tone became pitiful.

Don’t worry.

I’m not planning to kill her.

“…”

Glessia looked down at me in shock.

She hadn’t even begun to react before I’d appeared behind the hoodie girl and killed her.

Must’ve been spirit-form movement.

That’s probably what she was thinking.

Or maybe she was cursing her own impulsiveness for causing another death.

“Well, goodbye. I hope we don’t meet again.”

I yanked the chains, dragging Glessia to the ground.

I kindly stuffed a handkerchief in her mouth as a gag,

and sliced off her left arm.

The severed ends immediately froze, turning white as snow.

She must’ve fainted from fear and tension, but her magic still held.

If I took her now, she could be healed.

She wouldn’t be able to fight normally for a while, though.

As I landed with a thud, the pounding in my chest grew stronger and sharper.

Spirit form.

I tossed Glessia to the confused cops,

then vanished into the shadows and dashed hundreds of meters.

But since spirit form only lasts so long, I had to take one final step before returning home.

“Void Tunnel.”

A dark tunnel that leads from anywhere… to anywhere.

A pitch-black hole opened midair, gaping wide.

– Mom, Dad!

– It hurts… it hurts… it hurts…

– Please save me. Please save me. Please save me. Please save m—

As I stepped in, the noise filled my ears.

This was the void tunnel—a burrow carved into the base of the world where the screams and final cries of countless souls echoed endlessly.

But I was used to it.

It was always the same.

Nothing unusual.

Just the usual screaming.

“Haah… Haah… Haah…”

Spooky’s one redeeming quality was that, in hellholes like this, he didn’t blabber.

“It hurts…”

Just a few more steps.

– Glessia… big sis Glessia…

The noise made my heart pound harder.

One more step.

And another.

Light appeared.

“Guh… Guh…”

I finally made it out.

My lungs burned from overuse.

My heart pounded madly.

One beat.

One stab of pain.

No scream came.

Just bubbling gasps and spit dribbling from my lips.

Even a magical girl’s tough body couldn’t resist the pain.

It hurt.

It hurt.

It HURT.

“Haah… Haah… Haah…”

I bit my lip, afraid I’d scream if I let up.

The taste of blood filled my mouth.

I checked my surroundings.

A familiar thicket.

No people.

No cameras.

I washed off the blood with magic, changed into casual clothes—jeans and a t-shirt—and dyed my hair and eyes black.

I dragged myself to a small house.

A 3-room apartment on the edge of the suburbs, practically a slum.

My only safe place.

[Obsidia, you’re acting weird today! You’re not usually this aggressive. Please, calm down!]

I collapsed in the entryway.

Spooky’s shouting echoed in my mind.

I was acting strange today.

“I know that…!”

The pain in my chest peaked.

I ripped my shirt off—

And there it was.

A grotesque mass bulging from the center of my chest like a tumor.

Veins or tentacles—who knows—spreading radially across my skin.

The thing that created my nightmares.

Each time this disgusting growth pulsed in rhythm with my heartbeat, urges surged.

Pain, blood, and death. Commands from instinct, crawling through my nerves.

Madness.

Yes, madness was the only word this pathetic brain could think of.

Madness ruled my mind, reason, and memory—and I had killed again today.

The thing in my chest seemed pleased by the magical girl soul it had feasted on.

It pressed down on my heart without end, creating more pain.

It had been quiet lately.

For days, I hadn’t fed it any blood, and it stayed still.

Killing one person a day was just habit.

Nothing more.

We never made a deal or signed a pact.

It just so happened that its hunger cycle was roughly daily.

Or was this punishment?

For locking myself away, for ignoring its will?

Water. I needed water.

My throat burned dry.

I grabbed water from the fridge and dumped it down my throat—

Then vomited.

What a terrible day.

I’ll do what you want. Just let me go.

The tumor in my chest did not respond.